Telspinner's Tale
by Setzertrancer
Summary: Forgotten Realms continuing multichapter story. A bard walks into the Elfsong Tavern of Baldur's gate to tell an epic story, not as cliche as it sounds there's a big twist at the start. Rated T for most chapters. please Review. Discontinued.
1. Prologue

**Telspinner's Tale**

_This story is set in the forgotten realms world of D&D, please review and let me know what you think about everything from sentence structure to better words to use and of course the plot. _

**Prologue**

A street in the city of Baldur's Gate echoed with footsteps as a gnome walked slowly with its stubby little legs toward one of the most visited taverns in the city. A creaking sign swinging above the door read 'Elfsong Tavern'. He was only half the height of a human and wore many pieces of different coloured cloth which had been stitched together by an obviously inexperienced hand. He appeared fairly old, his hair was greying and had a few distinguished wrinkles, but still had a good century left and wasn't yet frail. He was also carrying a small harp but was still big enough for him to have to hold it in both hands. He stood before the tavern door, an old battered and splintered thing, but was made from Elven Oak so it still had quite a lifespan left to provide sound security. The gnome could hear drunken cries of bliss beyond the door and bright yellow light shone from two cross panelled windows. He needed a story and began getting his mind's creative juices flowing to spin up a tale.

He opened the door and the patrons of a variety of races turned towards him to see the new visitor, his mind began flowing with what would be the start of his story. A story although untrue would decide whether or not he would go into the history books of Faerun like many bards before him, but not many of these were gnomes.

Seeing that it was an unarmed gnome the patrons went back to their drinking, confident that no trouble was arising. The gnome could hear an eerie female elven voice echoing about the tavern, many of the patrons appeared to be here just to hear the soothing melodic voice. He walked up to the counter and looked around observing what would be his audience. A majority were human, no surprise there, Baldur's Gate was a human city after all. A couple of elves sat at their own table talking in the same language as the haunting voice, a halfling sat on the counter because he was too short to sit on any of the chairs, he held a small mug and looked like he was falling into a happy slumber. A female elf was sitting on her own away from the rest of her kind. When the gnome got closer he realised why; it was a half-elf and they weren't liked very much by humans and especially elves. The half-elf was wearing pale grey robes which identified her as a wizard.

A particular feature in the Tavern caught the gnome's eye. There was a small wooden statue of a beholder sitting on a bench with some candles casting light on it for the patrons' to see, a beholder is a fearsome looking monster which looks like a ball with tentacles coming out of it, on each tentacle was a small eye and on the middle of its ball shaped body was one huge eye. This wasn't an ordinary figurine; he could sense a magical aura emanating from it. He reached the bar counter but couldn't see over it. He tied the harp onto his backpack and then climbed onto the stool and then pulled himself onto the counter. The halfling looked at him with a smirk of understanding; this was common among the shorter races. A blonde haired elven woman was putting some mugs down on the bar and spotted the funny looking gnome. After a little giggle she said:

"Welcome to the Elfsong tavern, what can I get you?"

He pointed to his harp after pulling his backpack off and said "I've come to sing a story".

The elven woman beamed with a smile which seemed to have a magical glow, but it was really that everything elven females did looked perfect and beautiful. "Great" she replied and then yelled "Gyuap, set up the stage we've got a bard here".

A depressed looking half-orc walked into the bar area from the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a feather duster. He walked to the stage and began setting up a gnome friendly chair and stands for instruments.

"Going to be using any illusion magic to liven it up?" asked the elf.

"Yeah sure" replied the gnome

"Ok, what's your name then?" asked the elf.

"It's Telspinner or Tel for short" he replied.

"Great, start anytime your ready Telspinner". He climbed down to the stool and jumped back onto the wooden floor and headed to the stage. The half-orc had left the area and everything he needed was ready on the stage.

He walked up some gnome sized steps to a gnome sized chair and when he turned back to sit down he was as tall as the patrons. He strummed his harp and it blended well with the elven voice. This would work to his favour he thought.

"Once upon a time in the plane of limbo" he sung. He held up his hand and caused the lights in to tavern to dim, catching the patrons' attention and causing the noise of talking to stop. The patrons knew that gnome bard performances, rare as they were, had a reputation of being a good visual and audio spectacle. Tel waved his hand over his face, changing it to the appearance of a grey skinned creature which looked like a demon as it moved past. It had two small horns on top of its head and a cruel looking smile. It had white hair which almost as long as Tel's body, and his eyes began to emit an eerie red glow which unsettled some of the tavern patrons. Tel began a song to describe the setting and complimented it with a spell which changed the wall behind him to what he described. The sky looked like a mix of every color and the ground looked splintered and random. The scene zoomed up to a house which was built with a variety of materials which seemed to be slapped together randomly. This made the house look like a pile of rubble. "This, my friends, is where the hero of our story begins his journey".

_Kindly edited by Kiri-Ryu_


	2. Chapter 1 Once upon a time in Limbo

**Chapter 1 – Once upon a time in Limbo**

The landscape of the plane of Limbo was difficult for Tel to describe. The ground was splintered with irregular jumbles of earth resulting in everything from dangerous spikes to high cliffs and smooth earth. This was all on an island sized landmass which was floating around in a strange sky which contained every colour of the rainbow that was changing constantly. Throughout the sky other floating islands of earth could be seen spinning extremely fast or staying entirely still. Pockets of air, water and fire could also be seen floating about, resulting in pockets of wind creating random small breezes and disastrous hurricanes and candle sized flames to huge firestorms. Bodies of water in a variety of sizes were also floating about reflecting the multicoloured light from the sky like a diamond. Piles of rubble were situated about the landmass on some of the more stable ground. But these piles were in fact the homes of a race known as the diabolus. These creatures seemed to have built their houses with an incredible disregard for the common laws of structure or defence. Beams of metal and timber were protruding at odd angles from inclining stone walls. Diaboli were walking from place to place going about their daily discord lives.

Tel drew a breath and began singing about a new scene inside one of the strange houses. A diabolus was sitting in the middle of a circle of candles and chanting under his breath, with its eyes closed. A diabolus resembles a human with a thin body and arms but that's were the similarity ends. It has goat like legs and a dark indigo coloured skin. Its head looked like that of a devil but with elf-like ears and two small horns from the top of its head. The diabolus sitting in the room had long white hair down just past its shoulders and had a short white beard. The diabolus was fairly short in height and structure due to its fairly young age of 20, but had huge muscles that popped out with veins. Tel decided to explain this diabolos' past before getting into the present.

Tel began singing a summary of it's past. When he was born he was given the name of Fihsaaa-krs which he shortened to Fih for social occasions. As he was growing up he was not required to go to school as it was believed by the diaboli people that it was most effective when one taught themselves. School was too lawful and the diaboli believed in pure chaos. Meaning they had no government, also known as anarchy, they had no schedule and there days were as disorderly as their environment. Fih however from a young age had found himself to be quite different and would do things in an order that made sense to him. He would eat at three equal intervals each day and would dedicate a certain portion of each day to learning about other worlds from books which he had found floating around the island. When his parent had found out about his lawful and orderly they punished him by strapping him to the floor and whipping him. His parents couldn't understand why he was so orderly; this was completely against the nature of the Diaboli. After that incident Fih became more determined to follow his own ambition and began training to be a monk with one of the books he had found which was titled 'Life is Law Monastery Guide Book'. This had taught him to be even more lawful but he had to act chaotic in public. For a decade he successfully did this but couldn't help but attract attention to himself on occasions. He had to keep on making excuses about why he was doing a lot of his training regimes or scheduled meals. Everyone was suspicious of him and he didn't have many friends. Even those he had thought were his friends were getting more and more distant and the rest of the diaboli became suspicious of being around him. He had heard several rumours about how the other diaboli thought he was a doggleganger who had come to spy on them, that he had the soul of a disgusting material plane monster.

Upon hearing the rumour about the material plane, he actually started believing that it may be true himself and he started studying his books about the material plane and realised that all the books had come from the material plane. He then spent days and nights in isolation as he studied his books to find a way to the material plane. But just as he was attempting to cast a spell that would take him there, his past caught up with him. Tel sung a sentence explaining that the past was over and that he would now resume the story where he had started. Fih was sitting in the middle of the circle of candles, when the door of his house creaked open. He hadn't opened that door in weeks and it creaked in debate of being opened after all that time. Fih jumped up and in fear began picking up the candles. But the person who opened the door was the Elder.

"What is going on here?" asked the elder.

"I'm leaving this world I don't belong here" replied Fih.

The elder spent a moment to think and replied "Okay goodbye". Then the door shut and he was left alone again. He suddenly remembered that unlike in his books there were no courts or law and therefore no punishment. But the other diaboli would have surely exiled him, it was just that he beat them to it. Fih made a sigh of relief and began preparing the spell again. He was worried that he would be hung or stoned to death, but that wasn't the case in this world along with no law came no punishments except on rare occasions and only for murder. As he and the other diaboli knew however there was no way he could belong in Limbo something had gone seriously wrong in his birth but he couldn't figure that out yet and he wondered if he would ever know. Fih finished setting up his circle of candles and began chanting as he closed his eyes and imagined a place in the material plane he had seen a picture of, 'The Elfsong Tavern' he decided. He could imagine the wooden table that were strangely standing on four legs and the walls that were actually straight. Although these things were strange to him they were eerily familiar at the same time and he knew he was finally going to were he belonged. His stomach jerked as he felt himself being yanked in a direction he didn't know existed.

Meanwhile in the Elfsong Tavern…

The patrons' were on the edge of their seats as Tel summoned a figure which looked exactly like the one from the story in the middle of the tavern. It looked real and Tel had even surprised himself with the spectacle. At the same time the wooden figurine of the beholder shattered into splinters and waves of light shone from the shelf and enveloped the illusion in a cloak of light so bright that the patrons had to shield their eyes. After the light finally faded the illusion of Fih remained. Tel broke his concentration deliberately to dismiss the illusion. The lanterns came back to full brightness, the setting of Fih's house on the wall behind the stage disappeared. But the figure of Fih was still standing in the middle of the tavern. "Hi everyone I'm Fihsaaa-krs and I have come from the plane of limbo there is no need to fear me".


	3. Chapter 2 Out of Nowhere

**Chapter 2 – Out of Nowhere**

The patrons in the tavern began to applaud. This was the most convincing illusion they had ever seen. Fih started to get confused as he didn't know people would be expecting him to arrive. Tel made another attempt to dismiss the illusion, but it failed. Splinters of wood were scattered around the shelf where the beholder statuette once stood. Tel stared at the illusion for a good minute and the patrons sitting around the wooden tables stopped applauding and did the same. Everyone was silent and still staring at what none of them entirely understood. Was this still an illusion or had the bard made something real? Fih felt uneasy about everyone staring at him, he couldn't tell what they were feeling, whether they were scared or shocked or happy to see him. The first movement after a minute which felt really long by everyone in the tavern, was from a wide-eyed half-elf in pale grey robes which Tel had notice among the patrons who stood out more with her clothing that obviously shouted wizard. The half-elf walked to the shelf and picked up one of the splinters left from the exploding beholder and began making quiet chants while sprinkling the dust of a small diamond from her hand onto the piece of wood.

"I can't believe it" mumbled the half-elf under her breath.

"What happened?" asked Tel, as he step down from the stage, more confused then anyone else in the tavern.

The half-orc wearing apron had started watching Tel's performance about halfway through and was holding a plate of food which he nearly dropped at the surprising climax.

"I think you gave your illusion a soul" answered the half-elf who was now scratching her head as she sifted through the information flooding into her head from the identify spell.

The Bartender was also staring in awe and was wondering if this was all part of the act and whether or not the bard had finished his performance.

Tel gave the half-elf a blank questioning stare and then turned to the illusion he named Fih and attempted to touch it with his hand, which went right through the illusion's waist. Fih flinched when he saw this and jumped back landing right in the middle of a vacant table but instead of it toppling over his legs were hidden under the table and his body moved straight through it. Fih moved out of the table and looked at his own indigo coloured hands and touched them together, he could feel his hand's warmth on both palms and they felt solid.

"This is remarkable!" said the half-elf loudly "You've created a sentient illusion and is everything you imagined in your story"

"How is that possible?" asked Tel.

"My guess is that this beholder, had a magic property none of us could have predicted, apparently a blank soul was inside that you just provided the ingredients for to make it a real soul" replied the half-elf.

"and how would you know this?" asked Tel

"When I identified it, that's the impression I got from the cryptic information about its magic properties" replied the half-elf again.

Fih listened to what the half elf said and interrupted, "but I remember my childhood and my life and my home".

"You remember what this bard", the half-elf pointed to Tel, "imagined about your life and your past"

"So you're saying I'm not real then?" questioned Fih

"I'm saying your 3 minutes old, your reality I'm not so sure about" explained the half-elf.

The Barkeep moved out from behind the bar and approached the three of them.

"Is this part of the act Tel or is this really happening?".

"This is no act lady, if I were you I'd get a historian here right now, this is a historical first" replied the half-elf.

"I'm a historian!" exclaimed the halfling who was sitting on the bar, he had a notepad out and was already recording everything they were saying "Could you tell me your names?"

"I'm Thonnahar" replied the half-elf

"I don't really care about your name, you aren't the one who made history" sighed the halfling

"My name's Telspinner"

"Thank you, don't worry your achievement will be recorded by me the great historian Elmy Harcus" said the halfling raising his arms as if expecting an applause.

"and I don't think people will really care what your name is" laughed the half-elf.

The halfling knew otherwise however that since he was the historian who captured the event he was going to be almost as famous as Telspinner himself.

"We should go and see a sage of some sort about this" suggested Thonnahar

"who do you suggest we see" asked Tel

"well I happen to know someone…" Thonnahar started

"of course you do, you just want to travel with me don't you" accused Tel

"you can't blame me can you your going to be famous and so are your companions" Thonnahar defended.

"I was going to retire after this performance!" shouted Tel in disappointment.

"I don't think so, you can't leave your new friend" Thonnahar points to Fih "To contemplate his identity on his own can you"

"who said he was my friend, I certainly didn't say that" argued Tel

"Are you even considering the implications of this?" asked Thonnahar

"Yes I'm going to be famous, which is all I was aiming for from this performance" Argued Tel further.

The Illusion watched the conversation in silence and contemplated his own situation. He was apparently someone who had been created from Tel's imagination, so in all fairness just like childbirth it should be Tel's responsibility.

"you created me, so you need to look after me" interrupted Fih, "and I've always wanted to explore the material plane, you should know that better then anyone Tel".

Tel began getting angry, why should it be his responsibility when he had no way of knowing what was going to happen. Tel kicked a piece of wood left from the beholder in frustration at whoever created the pointless artefact.

"I'm just so sick of travelling!" yelled Tel "I've been doing so for more then 150 years, I deserve a break".

"What have you achieved historically in that time?" asked Elmy.

"I've killed a dragon" exclaimed Tel proudly.

"Lots of people have killed dragons" argued Elmy

The half-orc walked up to Tel gave him his meal and said "take me, Gyuap hate this job, Gyuap want to travel world"

The Barkeep lady didn't particular care if Gyuap quit his job, the Elfsong tavern was about to make a whole of money from yet another historic event taking place in her tavern.

"Okay whatever" replied Tel "I guess I'll have to travel again but give me a break until the morning"

"All of you rooms are on me!" said the Barkeep.

The patrons of the tavern started approaching Tel and asking him questions about what he thought when his illusion didn't disappear and some started poking Fih curiously. As soon as Tel was surrounded by people and was out of Elmy's view he turn to the Barkeep and asked "Where did you get that beholder statue?".

"Oh it was brought in as a gift about 5 years ago, some adventurer said it would create more atmosphere in the tavern", replied the barkeep.

"I wonder if it was intentional for this to happen?" asked Elmy.

"I don't know, but the patrons have enjoyed it being there", She replied

Elmy walked up to Tel who was now sitting eating his meal and the patrons were mostly prodding and walking through Fih now.

"I want to come with you as well, I must find out why this happened" stated Elmy

"Okay I guess so" moaned Tel, still brooding about his failed retirement.

"don't feel bad about this" consoled Elmy "your going to be one of the most famous bards in history now".

"I doubt it" replied Tel "It's not like this was entirely my doing".

"I don't think many people could have created an illusion as strong as that one, I'm guessing an average illusionist couldn't have triggered this, there have been other bards that have put on a show like yours in the last five years and they didn't create what you did" explained Elmy.

"I think I was just lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it" spat Tel.

After 2 hours of the people in the tavern interrogating both Tel and Fih. Tel went upstairs to his room knowing he was going to be living in a tent again, but after Tel got over the negative aspects he remembered that he still achieved the night's goal, to become famous, It's just he didn't expect to become famous in this way.

Fih got sick of being poke and prodded and walked strait through the counter and wall into the kitchen, tried to sit down and fell right through the counter, he stood up again and began thinking about his situation. It was really hard to believe what had happened to him until he started being able to move through object like he wasn't there. But there could be another explanation he thought. Maybe he didn't successfully get fully transferred to the material plane and there only half exists. But then he remembered how everyone seemed to expect him to arrive.


	4. Chapter 3 Storyline

**Chapter 3 – Storyline**

Telspinner woke up to the smell of bacon and headed downstairs back to the bar room. Fih was standing next to a table trying to pickup a mug he ordered, but his hand passed straight through. Tel sat at the same table and waited for the breakfast he could smell coming from the kitchen. Fih tried to kick the mug and his foot passed through the table and mug and he gave up and sat on the floor, since he also couldn't sit a chair. Seeing this Tel sung a short lyric which made a chair appear next to Fih. "There you should be able to sit on that" said Tel. Fih sat down on the illusion chair and it felt solid to him. "So, here you are" exclaimed Tel.

"Yes here I am thanks to you" replied Fih showing his frustration by pointing aggressively.

"You wouldn't exist at all if it wasn't for me" said Tel "we should try to get along"

Fih frowned "I'm sorry but this is such a surprise to me, I just wanted to go to the material plane to live among people, which I suppose I can now, it's just annoying that I can't interact with objects".

"I can create illusions of anything you need" Consoled Tel.

Gyuap walked out of the kitchen holding a plate covered with bacon, eggs and fried tomatoes and placed it in front of Tel on the table. "Thank you" said Tel "I thought you had quit here".

"Days notice" grunted Gyuap with an annoyed look on his face "I travel with you tomorrow?"

"Yeah" replied Tel "you'd better get some equipment after work" he suggested looking at the cleaning apron which looked extremely unusual on a half-orc. Gyuap walked back behind the counter and began dusting it.

"So what was going to happen to me?" asked Fih

"What do you mean" replied Tel

"After I arrived at the material plane in your story, what was going to happen?" clarified Fih.

"Oh" Tel nodded in surprise at the question "I don't really plan my stories very far ahead but I guess you were going to find it hard to fit in with people on the material plane and live as an outcast most of your life, because diaboli are commonly believed to be evil creatures, but I know otherwise"

"That doesn't sound like a very nice story" commented Fih.

"Stories aren't meant to be all happy and nice, you need conflicts, problems, unhappy endings and characters dieing to make the story interesting" Explained Tel.

"Great so I guess you were going to kill me at the end" whined Fih.

"Maybe, but you wouldn't even be aware of yourself if it wasn't for the spell in that beholder" Said Tel "it's quite ironic if you think about it, I was just going to tell a story about some character I made up and he was only going to exist in the minds of my audience, but now I've created that memory in my own character".

The tavern door opened and Thonnahar walked in appearing deep in thought, ignoring the two of them at the table she sat down and began writing in her spell book.

"Good morning" said Tel

After about 10 seconds of staring at her spell book appearing to be looking for something she finally replied "oh… yeah… sorry… good morning"

"What are you doing?" asked Tel

"I'm look for a spell that can transfer souls" She replied

"Why are you doing that?" asked Fih

"Because if we could transfer your soul to a vessel without one you could become physically tangible" she explained.

"That sounds good but were are we going to find an empty vessel" asked Fih

"That's the hardest part" she replied "it's illegal to extract a soul from someone, so finding someone already without one will be extremely unlikely, you would be significantly useful in battle with those muscles of yours"

An awkward moment passed as she seemed to stare at him.

"Don't flirt with the illusion" joked Tel

"I'm not…. I'm just saying…" she started

"It doesn't matter" Interrupted Tel "We need to do some shopping to prepare to go... Where are we going?"

"There is an expert on illusions living in Water deep, he taught me a lot of what I know today about magic, his name is Kraic".

"That's not too far" commented Tel "maybe I can retire soon anyway".

"Why do want to retire so much?" asked Thonnahar

"Because" replied Tel "I've seen enough of the world and I have enough wealth to contemplate for the next hundred years"

Thonnahar sighed "You don't know how lucky you are to live for so many years, if I were you I'd get as many experiences as I could, unfortunately for me if I was an elf I'd live for 800 years, but because of my human blood I only live for 150 years and humans by Azuth, they only live for around 80 years, how unfortunate would it be to be human".

"Very" nodded Tel.

"Ha, I'll live forever" shouted Fih in competition.

Both Thonnahar and Tel stared at him as there was something on his face.

"You do realise, that spells have a limited duration" asked Thonnahar

"What but I'm not a spell" he replied feeling concerned.

"Your body kind of is but your soul isn't" said Tel

"Yeah" Agreed Thonnahar "you are partially a spell and the person connected to your soul is kind of an imaginative illusion"

"How long do your spells normally last?" asked Fih

"Hours, days" replied Tel

"But we don't know how powerful the beholder's spell was, for all we know it could be permanent"

"Could be" confirmed Fih

"There are permanent spells but those are rare and expensive, if we can find a way we could make you permanent" said Thonnahar

"Okay" replied Fih, who was starting to feel worried that he didn't know what his lifespan would be.

After breakfast the three of them went to the market in the middle of Baldur's Gate. Merchant's stands were littered all over the market square creating a maze of people shouting about their great deals and once in a life time opportunities. After a good hour of searching they finally found a useful stand which sold weapons.

"Nowhere else in the realms will you find such fine weaponry" shouted the fat human shopkeeper. Tel had a look at the crossbows and found a very unusual one which had two metal slots for the bolts right next to each other.

"What's this?" asked Tel

"That, my wealthy friend is none other then the rare Double Crossbow, it is quite difficult to use but once you get the hang of it, it's twice as good as any other crossbow, and.." he stared as he yanked the crossbow from the gnome. He pushed the two metal slots on the crossbow outward so the faced to the left and right in a V shape rather then facing straight. "…you can shoot the two bolts in any direction you want" he finished. Tel inspected the crossbow while comparing it to the others available, which were just the normal ones he'd seen everyday, he liked the originality of the double crossbow so he bought it for 75 gold pieces. Thonnahar didn't need to look for long to find a gnarled oak staff which caught her attention immediately.

"Yes" confirmed the shopkeeper noticing her gaze "this beauty is only a slightly used magical staff that that I'm willing to part with for only 600 gold pieces". Thonnahar couldn't believe it staves normally cost no less then 2000 gold as a rule and made the purchased it immediately.

"What about me?" Asked Fih

"Even if I made you a illusionary weapon you wouldn't be able use it against anyone, except other illusions" Replied Tel

"Oh great, what use am I going to be?" complained Fih.

"You can distract our foes and confuse them" Replied Tel "I know you went through all that martial art training and now you don't get to use it, right"

"Stop knowing my past damn you" joked Fih.

"Isn't Elmy coming with us?" asked Tel

"Yes he gave me his address and wanted us to get him when we were ready to go" said Thonnahar waving a small parchment that she pulled out of her spell book.

They went to a travellers shop to buy their basic travelling supplies such as bedrolls, torches and food and then went back to the Elfsong tavern to wait for when Gyuap finished work. Gyuap finished and then followed the group back to the same stand in the market square to buy the heaviest two handed axe he saw. Then they went to Elmy's house and knocked on the door, there was no answer and when Tel turned the door handle and the door opened, what they saw inside shocked even the illusion from Limbo.


	5. Chapter 4 Words

**Chapter 4 – Words**

Just from the open door Tel could see a living area with pasty faded yellow walls which were covered in writing, writing that was in the common dialect but the words themselves were jumbled bunches of letters that looked too random and non-sensible to be a language. The wall also had illustration of a variety of common creatures such as goblins, humanoids and even a variety of animals. The floor of this room couldn't be seen as pieces of parchment were littered everywhere covered with the same strange language, and there were books piled on top of each other that nearly reached to the yellow roof. The party took a few more steps until they were all inside the room. Thonnahar walked up to the wall and began observing the writing, the words were things like grfytuiklupop and hrfbolpawyr. Thonnahar had never seen anything like this and started sketching some of the strange words into empty pages of her spellbook. Tel walked up to another side of the room where he saw a gnome illustrated next to dozens of words. Fih passed through some of the piles of books as he looked around, not even he had seen information organised this chaotically, but then again he had never seen so much information organised. Fih only saw books on rare occasions when he would catch them floating around. He read every book he could get his hands on as he loved learning and this felt to Fih like the perfect sanctuary. Gyuap stood at the door and felt responsible for guarding everyone in such an unusual place, the stranger a place was the more dangerous it was from his experience.

"Have you ever seen this?" asked Tel looking toward Thonnahar who looked to be in a trance of wonder.

"No" she replied "I've never seen this before" as she started trying to pronounce on of the words to see if it was magical. Nothing happened so she assumed it was just a really exotic language.

"Ybilo, Jbukrilax!" shouted a voice from a room deeper in the house.

"Was that Elmy?" asked Tel

"Sounded like him" replied Fih.

"Ybilo, Jbulkrilaaaxxx!" shouted the voice louder and with an edge of anger in the voice.

"Let's see what he's doing" said Thonnahar as she walked toward a door and opened it. Seeing a long hallway lined with doors on the other side. This hallway too was covered with parchment and writing on the wall and columns of book were stacked on either side.

Gyuap quickly shoved Thonnahar aside taking the lead of the party and took out his axe expecting the books to attack them.

"Ybilo, Jbulkrilaax!" shouted the voice again calmer this time. Tel noticed that the voice keep on changing single syllables each time or lengthened a syllable it spoke. The four of them continued walking down the hallway in the direction of the voice. Gyuap looked at each book column carefully for teeth or arms before moving further down the hall the other were getting quite impatient at this.

"Ybilo, Jbuulkrilaax" the voice shouted and then they heard what sounded like wood snapping and exploding as if forced apart. "aha!" appraised the voice sounding pleased. "whoops" they heard the voice say "Oh well" it continued. The party finally reach they door they heard the noise from second last door on the right. Tel slipped past Gyuap causing him to grunt quietly in protest. But before he even thought the knock on the door he heard "Rjoorba, Lkoiyum" and the door swung open on it's own, revealing the halfling Elmy sitting on a bed in a room closely resembling the rest of the house, with a piece of parchment in his hand. This time he was wearing a robe of the same yellow colour with black letter resembling the same words around the house. To the left they could see a huge marble statue in what appeared to be a set of wooden shelves. But were they were all broken and several pieces of wood from the shelves were littered around the base of the statue.

"Hello, everyone, welcome" he greeted cheerfully, enjoying the perplexed looks on their faces.

Thonnahar was the first to ask what they were all thinking "What in Azuth?"

Elmy smiled at the question and before answering broke into a short giggle. "Yep, that's normally the reaction people have, especially you wizards" he then laughed again. Thonnahar scowled at him impatient for the answer.

"Why don't you stay here for dinner everyone I'll be happy to explain everything then". He said, with a smile still on his face from Thonnahar's reaction.

Elmy motioned for the party to follow him back down the hall as he led them to the first door on the right. This led to a kitchen and dining room which still had some writing on the walls but not to the extent of the other rooms and there was only a single open book on the dining table. The kitchen consisted of the counter and hotplate on the right side and the round dining table with 6 chairs on the left. Elmy headed into the kitchen area and opened a cupboard which was full of ice and had a variety of raw foods were frozen inside. "Please sit down" he said to the party as he pulled a piece of raw beef out of the ice cupboard. Tel, Fih, Thonnahar and Gyuap sat down and stared at Elmy waiting. After Elmy turned around to put the meat on the hotplate he said "Okay just let me start this cooking" in response to the stares. He lent down behind the count to light a fire in a small wood compartment, and then stood up and shifted the meat on the plate. "The words are true language of the universe". He started the party looked at each other with quiet, polite scepticism. "Not many people know about this language as not just is it difficult to comprehend, but it is also dangerous to use untrained". "Like magic" commented Thonnahar. "Yes" replied Elmy as they room stared filling with a smell that fed on their appetites. "It is called Truename magic and by knowing the true, universal name of an object or person I can manipulate their existence in the universe". Tel and Thonnahar's eye opened wide. "However anything I change eventually reverts to its original state to comply with the universal constant". Gyuap blanked out and started thinking only about the meat. "Is that legal?" asked Thonnahar. "It's so rarely known about that their haven't been any laws passed, but if it was well known I imagine it could cause some controversy" Elmy replied. "However my powers are limited and it's extremely hard to pronounce truenames as every single variable of pitch, tone and syllable length has to be exact or it won't work or it might even cause effect you don't intend.

Thonnahar didn't like the sound of this and decided to defend the superiority of arcane magic "what give you the right to manipulate things like that!"

Elmy had talked to arcane sceptics before and had a prepared answer for that question "what gives you the right to read peoples minds, transmute them, hurt them or even teleport things into this plane that don't belong here". Thonnahar wanted to argue back but he made a good point and she was speechless. "Sorry" apologized Elmy "but I'm just defending my art as you were, both our magic isn't very different it's just the level we manipulate things at, you change things directly, I change the properties of its existence for a limited time". Thonnahar was quick to react to the opportunity. "But if it changes back then obviously the universe doesn't want it your way". Elmy shook his head in weariness, he'd had this argument too many times before and never convinced the critics. "Let's just agree to disagree" he said "the point is, I'm useful.

"Sounds fun to me" said Tel "your welcome to join us".

Thonnahar rolled her eyes but didn't say anything further in respect for the rest of the party. "Food ready" grunted Gyuap banging his fist on the table harder then he meant to and causing it to topple slightly. "Nearly" Replied Elmy.

After the party had their fill, Thonnahar told Elmy about how they were going to Waterdeep. Elmy picked up the book on the table and moving around shoving specific pieces of paper into the book. It was surprising he seem to know where to find things since it didn't take him long to finish and the party went back into the market to find horses and ponies for Elmy and Tel. Tel had become highly proficient at riding from his many years of adventuring before and spent a few hours teaching the party how to ride better, especially Thonnahar who'd never ridden a horse, before the five of them headed out the gate for the start of their journey to Waterdeep.


	6. Chapter 5 Vestige

**Chapter 5 – Vestige**

A man stood in the middle of a grand church, the walls were a bland white, several black and white marble columns extended to the roof and at the end of the huge room was a large golden church organ behind the preacher's pedestal. A dozen rows of benches flanked either side of him and the colourful stained glass windows cast a cheery pleasant light into the place. The man was wearing basic leather armour and had a long sword sheathed in a scabbard on his belt. He had long dark black hair that stretched just beyond his shoulders and dull grey eyes. In front of him was a small wooden sandbox, filled with damp sand. The man leant down on one knee and started drawing a circle into the sand. He drew a smaller horizontal line into the circle using a small spike he had on his forefinger, just under the centre of the circle and drew tiny circles on the end of the line. He then drew another shorter vertical line through the horizontal line, he drew another tiny circle at the bottom of this and another just above the top of the line which he drew a dash through. Two more circles were drawn to the left and right of the vertical line but above the horizontal line. After that he added eight curly lines that stretched out from the first two lines covering most of the space left in the circle. Finally he drew a small horizontal line near the top of the vertical line and added detail to it to make it look like the bottom of an ankh. He did this very slowly know any slight mistake would result in failure. After he finished the drawing in the sand he stood up and observed his work.

"Come forth Marchosias!" he shouted. The circle and all of the lines within it began glowing and then just as quickly reverted to normal. Which was then quickly followed by a bloodcurdling screamed that echoed off the hard stone walls of the church and an explosion of fire and black smoke. The fire rose above the drawing to the height of the man's head and the smoke shifted until it resembled the shape of a humanoid figure. The smoke formed under the fire which now resembled a flaming crown, and rapidly became a sharper and sharper image until a black face formed under the crown. The rest of the smoke formed his humanoid shape and then changed color to create a dark garment of dark blue and a white cottony hood draping down his back. Some of the smoke changed in colour to show a red cape on his back and a pair of golden bracers on each arms and held a wooden sceptre upon which a torch like flame flickered. The final smoke formed into a golden sword sheathed into a golden scabbard on a belt with a buckle representing a hellish field with two horns and drooping skin instead of a mouth.

The form was slouched after appearing and quickly looked up to address its summoner. "What pathetic weakling dares to call be now!" he boomed, his voice sounding like the clicks and crackling from an intense flame. "It is I Illior!" the man exclaimed confidently looking directly into the Marchosias's eye sockets that appeared to be filled with hot coals. "You must host me for a full day and I will provide your pathetic mortal body with mean to defeat your likely weaker foes!" Marchosias shouted in an attempt scare the summoner. "I accept" replied Illior holding his arms out wide to allow the monster to take him. "Then you are mine!" said Marchosias in a cruel tone.

Marchosias disappeared and Illior instantly caught on fire, but after only five seconds the fire disappeared and Illior stood in the middle of a rising cloud of smoke unharmed. He turned and walked out of the church, his eyes had now changed to a dull red-orange color which made him look a lot more intimidating. He also now had a smirk on his face as if planning world domination. He stepped outside of the church into a bright sunny day and the church was surrounded with a variety of well kept gardens teeming with flowers of every color of the rainbow. The scene looked sickening to Marchosias. Waiting for him outside were two human men wearing white cloaks that approached him, the white cloaks where the only similarity and both had a large symbol of a plate gauntlet with an eye in the palm. One of the men wore full plate armour and had a bastard sword sheathed in a scabbard. His helm's visor was open revealing a middle aged man with a rough beard and dark brown eyes. The other man was wearing only a breastplate and had a heavy mace hanging off a long chain on his belt, which also had a variety of different coloured potions clipped to it. This man's face was clean shaven and he had short blonde hair, he looked comparatively younger compared to the man behind the visor.

"It is done?" asked the mace wielder

"Yes it is done Tarzon" Illior said in a quiet voice feeling the vestige he hosted rising to take control "You dare question me you stupid mortal!" he burst out in a fierce voice that made the cleric jump back in surprise and the paladin draw his sword.

"Sorry" He replied, again in the quiet voice "This vestige is powerful and difficult for me to control"

"Why are we working with such an evil being?" asked the paladin accusingly re sheathing his sword slowly.

"Because we are going to use that evil for the cause of good" Snapped Tarzon "don't question me again Andril"

Andril smiled "ha ha! I like the sound of that"

"What exactly is my mission?" asked Illior

"To destroy the evil abomination a careless bard recently made" Answered Tarzon "It is an illusion infected with a soul that does not belong to it and a its disgusting warping of what is meant to be real and unreal, If the bard makes it back to his evil associates he will tell them the secrets of such a creation and cause the rising of an evil army of illusion soldiers against which we will have no defence, by Helm it is our duty to protect the people and prevent this new evil from rising against us".

"I do not care about you stupid religious reason just let kill something!" boomed Illior's voice now controlled by Marchosias again.

"We will deal with the illusion" said Andril "Your job is to kill the evil beings travelling with them, lest they reach their evil allies"

"Yes they shouldn't be much of a problem for someone of your power, it's just, what a silly little bard, a halfling historian a half-elf wizard and a thick headed half-orc" included the cleric reading a parchment with information about the party.

The three of them headed to the stables with Illior occasionally commenting on how useless and worthless mortals were and that if he didn't have to bind he would destroy them himself. The cleric pulled a brown horse out of the stable first which looked to be only recently trained for riding as it kicked and protested against being ridden. The paladin pulled his own horse out of the stable that was not just a beautiful silvery-white colour but also seemed to have an angelic glow, the white horse obeyed Andril's every command and laid down for him while he mounted it. "Good girl Jess" praised Andril. Tarzon got another brown horse out of the stable for Illior to ride and the three of them set off out of the south gate of Waterdeep.

Meanwhile Illior was undergoing a battle of wills with the vestige that consumed him, he kept on losing control and the vestige kept on coming out to taunt the two priests of Helm for each time he apologized. Illior had only summoned this vestige once before and hated the thoughts it brought him. Thoughts of innocent women being murdered in front of their children and visions of Marchosias hiding in the shadows to kill whoever he thought looked innocent and helpless, and even thought of raping women in front of their husbands. Then thoughts came flooding in of prison and being tortured for all the crimes he had committed. Illior felt like he had committed these crimes and he felt enough guilt for all the people Marchosias remembered killing in his mortal form. Illior made a vow to himself that he would never summon this vestige again once they found and dispelled this illusion.

The three horse riders travelled for days during which Tarzon demanded Illior to resummon Marchosias each time its 24 hour duration waned. Andril spent a while thinking on the journey and had to ask Tarzon a question.

"How do we know these people are evil?"

Tarzon looked at him as if he was crazy "Who else would create such an evil being?" looking at Andril with resentment for not seeing things his way.

"But what evidence do we have to suggest this?" argued Andril

"Evidence! Helm is our evidence, I will not tolerate such heresy again" argued Tarzon

Andril didn't bother arguing further as he knew that once Tarzon was fixated on a mission and he saw changing his mind as a failure on that mission, Andril instead started thinking of a way he could help them escape if they were not evil, he would be able to detect if they are evil after all.

They continued to travel and when they reached a building in the middle of the country called The Way Inn they decided to rest wait for the illusion and his party to stop to rest here.


	7. Chapter 6 Troll Toll

**Chapter 6 – Troll Toll**

The party had been travelling for two days past long rolling fields of green plains. Every couple of hours Tel had to re create Fih's horse illusion as the spell kept on running out. The party had been travelling along a dirt road called Coast way. Despite the name the road lead them going north from such an easterly point that the sea to the west was nowhere to been seen. Eventually the party came to a point where the landscape change quite suddenly to steep hills that stretched up and down and caused the horses to get quite tired of the uphill treks.

"Trolls infest this place" warned Tel "Beware".

"Gyuap kill many trolls" he boasted lifting his axe in triumph.

They eventually reached a thin rope bridge extending across a wide river on which a tall ugly green troll guarded the other end. The party started crossing the bridge with their weapons out when suddenly they heard Fih cry out in panic. Turning back they saw that Fih had fallen straight through the bridge and fell more then 40 ft into a rushing river below.

"Damn I'm an idiot I should have known that would happen!" yelled Tel.

"Not many people have travelled with an illusion before" commented Thonnahar sarcastically.

"He should still be under the water it won't be able to push him in his state, we have to help him" Cried Tel.

"We've got company first" said Elmy as he began talking in his strange language causing the troll to become still and unable to move.

"This way too!" shouted Gyuap watching several trolls started crowding up to the other side of the bridge they had come from. More trolls were also lining up at the far end of the bridge.

"This isn't good" said Tel "This is the smartest tactic I've ever seen trolls use".

Gyuap charged into the trolls behind them smashing the first one with the side of his axe into the trolls behind it for a domino effect, he then began slashing them mercilessly, blood raining off the bridge and colouring the water below.

Tel looked down off the bridge for Fih but couldn't see him, he imagined Fih in his mind and then imagined him growing illusionary wings while casting the spell to do so.

Fih look around in the water and was fascinated by the marine life swimming around to greet him, before he could explore this new environment however a pair of large feathery wings resembling those of an angel appeared on his back and he started back up to the bridge to see if his friends were in trouble.

The trolls were flanking both sides of the party, Gyuap was fending them of with his axe quite effectively but more were running onto the bridge then he was killing. "Fire" shouted Tel "They are vulnerable to fire". Thonnahar started to cast a fireball but realized she would burn the whole bridge down with them. "Not a good idea" shouted Thonnahar. Elmy started naming the planks of wood beneath the trolls on his side and a snapped them causing more then a dozen of the trolls to fall into the water below. "What are you doing?" shouted Thonnahar "How are we going to cross?" "It's temporary they'll revert back to normal soon" Shouted Elmy. Thonnahar thought through the spells she had memorized and began waving her arms and her staff in a seemingly random way and then several of the trolls near Gyuap fell asleep. Gyuap used this opportunity to slash at the trolls exposed necks lopping the heads off and they rained down from the bridge. Fih flew up into the sky and observed their surroundings and was shocked when he saw that there at least fifty trolls approaching each side of the bridge. Thonnahar cast another spell and pointed her staff at Gyuap whose muscles seem to grow larger and additional veins popped out all over his arms.

"There are too many of them!" yelled Fih flying down to their level.

"How many!" shouted Tel

"A hundred" replied Fih.

"What, we are doomed" said Tel

Gyuap was getting frustrated at the endless trolls and made a huge battle cry that nearly burst the ears of Tel, who was standing behind him, then Gyuap started slashing harder but this left him open and a troll's claw plunged into his stomach. On Elmy's side the planks had now reappeared suddenly and the trolls ran back along it charging at Elmy. He tried to break the planks again but in panic mispronounced them. A troll smashed into Elmy knocking him off the bridge followed by the sound of a splash.

"I've never seen trolls this determined before" shouted Tel

"What is going on?" questioned Thonnahar

Thonnahar thought as hard as she could as the trolls surrounded her and Tel, only one thing could cause trolls to behave like this, magic, but what magic was causing it. Blood was gushing out of Gyuap's stomach as he toppled over the bridge from a claw smashing him across the face, another splash was heard. Thonnahar luckily blocked a Troll's claw with her staff but because of its magical property it wasn't damaged.

"It was nice travelling with you for this brief quest!" said Thonnahar

"Don't speak like that" Tel said as he pulled out his double crossbow. But before he could load it another troll swiped at Tel and knocked him of the bridge by making him fall through the gap in the railing. Now Thonnahar was alone, she had only brief moments to think as two lines of trolls flanked her on both sides 'fireball' her thoughts nagged but she knew she would probably kill herself if she used that spell 'fireball'. She raised her staff to block a claw that narrowly missed her face which knocked it her staff off the bridge into the river below. Then the trolls backed away, they walked off the bridge and began climbing down the cliffs. After some of them climbed down the cliffs they swim into the water and then started clawing at the staff and trying to destroy it. It finally occurred to her, the staff was cursed. She ran to the far end of the bridge relieved to finally be free of it. Elmy and Tel dragged a bleeding and unconscious Gyuap out of the water and onto a small ledge that flanked along the river. The trolls were still busy attacking the staff like it was their worst enemy which was now starting to get splintered and damaged. Elmy started muttering something at the wall. Parts of the wall slid out to form a long stair case that reached to the top of the cliff. Elmy and Tel quickly dragged Gyuap up the staircase to the top of the cliff.

Thonnahar quickly ran up to where they emerged and yelled "Next time I see that shopkeeper I'm going to kill him". Her face showing she was furious.

"No time for that Gyuap's dying" explained Tel. Tel played a small tune on his lute imbuing it with magic as he spoke the words of the only healing spell he'd learned, Cure Light Wounds. Fih flew down the meet them and his wings disappeared. Gyuap opened his eyes and coughed up a column of blood and started grunting in agony.

"Are you okay" asked Elmy.

"No he isn't we have to get him to a healer" said Tel "The Way Inn should be further up the road"

"The Way Inn is a least another 3 days away on horseback" Complained Thonnahar.

"Elmy can you do anything?" asked Tel

"I could try" he replied

"Well try!" yelled Tell.

Elmy spoke a jumble of strange words and Gyuap's wound closed with incredible speed "It will only be for a little while" said Elmy.

"Then we've no time to lose" stated Fih "This was way too high a toll to pay for crossing a bridge.

The party gathered their horses that Thonnahar had put into an extra dimensional space and continued on their way. They soon passed out of the hills and back into the green fields. Gyuap's wound had reopened and the party used a few pieces of their clothing to wrap around Gyuap's stomach and stop the blood flow. They continued along a barren landscape and cliff that stretched to their right and then the Misty Forest moved past showing they were nearly at the Inn. At this point they weren't sure If Gyuap was dead or alive and they had to travel for stretches of two days straight without sleeping until they finally reached the Inn.


	8. Chapter 7 Murder in the Dark

**Chapter 7 – Murder in the Dark**

Gyuap's blood was raining behind the horses as they galloped with new determination toward a huge building situated in the middle of a long stretch of road. The huge building looked just like the Elfsong Tavern in Baldur's Gate with the exception that is was a least five times larger. Stretching out from the right of the massive structure was a splintered and poorly kept wooden annex, in which a variety of horses hung their heads out from over a mouldy wood fence. One of the horses was particularly noticeable, its silvery mane and white hide appearing to glow brightly in the drab setting. After storing their horse in the stables and Tel made Fih's horse disappear, Thonnahar, Elmy and Tel picked up Gyuap by his shoulders and feet and carried him towards the double doors at the front of the Inn. Tel and Elmy felt like they were trying to lift a house and Gyuap's blood stained into their clothes. Tel practically rammed the door while trying to turn the handle and it opened suddenly from the force. The patrons sitting around the tables in this large common room were shock at the sudden entry but not particularly surprised to see the dying half-orc. The common room of this Inn looked a lot like that of the Elfsong tavern except on a much larger scale, the stage on the far end beside the stairs leading to the rooms was large enough to have twenty people perform on it a once and the bar ran the entire left side of the room and had barkeeps along it a regular intervals. This was all lit brightly by several beautiful magical crystal chandeliers.

"We need a healer!" Shouted Tel waving his arms toward the bleeding half-orc as if no-one could see him. From the closest table a man with short blond hair stood up, his heavy mace hanging off his belt from a short chain and began walking towards the half-orc. His shoulder was grabbed from behind by another man wearing a matching white cape and had a helmet with an open visor that hid his hair. "They are not evil" he whispered in his ear. "I don't care what you think, Andril" replied the blond haired man shoving him back hard. A third person was sitting at the table who had menacing red-orange eyes and shoulder length black hair, he was looking at Fih as if hungry and that he was the food. "I'm Tarzon" he greeted with a forced smile "allow me to help this poor orc" he said. Although Tel sensed an insincerity about his demeanour he wasn't about to lose his only chance to help Gyuap. He stayed close to Gyuap as the cleric approached. Tarzon knelt down beside Gyuap and moved his hand over his wound while muttering a short prayer to Helm. Gyuap's skin immediately began to close and quickly grew to cover the gashing wound on Gyuap's stomach. "Thank you so much" said Tel propping Gyuap up to see if he was alright. Gyuap's eyes soon opened and he coughed up one last clog of blood. "It is Helm's pleasure to help those in need" replied Tarzon "He has lost a lot of blood make sure he takes it easy". "I will" replied Tel as Gyuap slowly stood up with his studded leather armor heavily soaked with blood that weighed him down. Tarzon rejoined his companions at the table and cast Andril a sneaky grin and motioned for them to come upstairs. Tarzon walked next to the black haired man and pat him on the back "Your time to shine is nearly at hand Marchosias, just a little longer". The three of them walked upstairs and Tel and his companions sat at the now vacant table they left behind.

Tel shouted the round for the party and drinks began to be served by one of the many pretty waitresses walking quickly back and forth between the bar and Tel created an illusionary chair for Fih to sit in, as well as and illusionary mug full of fine brew. "I don't like those three, there is something unsettling about them" stated Thonnahar with a serious warning tone. Elmy shook his head "Is that all you can think about after they just saved Gyuap" replied Elmy. "No, I agree there is something fishy about those three, they seemed to be the least surprised of the patrons to see us" agreed Tel. "I grateful, would be dead now" grunted Gyuap in approval. "We should see if anyone can extend my duration while we are here" interrupted Fih. "Maybe that healer could help" suggested Elmy. "No, I'd rather avoid them if I can" replied Tel. "You ungrateful bastards" commented Elmy shaking his head in disbelief. "We should take watches tonight just to be safe" Suggested Thonnahar. "Yes I'll take first watch then you Elmy, then Thonnahar, then Fih and Gyuap, we'll let you rest. "yeah alright but I still think you're being paranoid, the whole point of an Inn is that we don't need to take watches". "Trust me Elmy, I not often wrong about these things" explained Tel. Tel summoned an illusionary reality of the floor beneath Fih's feet as they walked up the stairs allowing him to not fall through the stairs and the floor upstairs til they got to their room and Tel made Fih an illusionary bed in their room and they soon fell asleep after an exhausting two days without sleep. Tel struggled to stay awake for another 3 hours as he took his watch.

Elmy nearly smacked Tel in the head as he was woken up from a particularly pleasant dream. Elmy took a long time to get up and protested at the prospect of going on watch for nothing. Two and half hours later when Elmy was eagerly counting the minutes until the end of his watch he heard someone coming down the hallway. Watching carefully he soon noticed that there were three sets of foot steps and soon enough he saw Tarzon with the other two tailing behind. Upon seeing Elmy, Tarzon made a warm smile and said "Hello Elmy, we just thought we would come and check on my patient". "All three of you?" asked Elmy, quickly realising another inconsistency he asked "How do you know my name?". "Okay" replied Tarzon "I brought my friends here because they are healers too and your friend will be much better off in all of our hands and I know your name because you are the famous historian Elmy Harcus, everyone knows you especially now that you travel with the creator of the living illusion". Elmy nearly drowned in vanity he had no idea that many people knew of him yet, he was finally becoming famous he thought. Elmy nearly told them to go ahead but remembered his friends and decided to respect their wishes by being a least reasonably careful. "Okay" He replied "I'll go and let everyone know you are here" as he turned around and opened the door to the room with the key. Then he felt something heavy strike his head, immediately causing him to fall unconscious.

The loud booming orcish screaming could be heard by the entire Inn as Gyuap woke up seeing Tarzon with his hand over his stomach from which a new fountain of blood splashed onto both of their faces. Tel woke up just before a sword plunged into his shoulder pinning him to the hard merchant class mattress, the closed visor looking like a monster. Thonnahar woke up to the screaming and menacing red-orange eyes staring into hers and a flaming sword about to plunge into her chest. With a few quick words a small invisible force knocked the sword out of the black haired man's hand which he quickly lent down to pick up again. Thonnahar took this short chance to look around and saw that both Gyuap and Tel were incapacitated, Fih was staring at the performance helplessly wishing he could help and Elmy was nowhere to be seen. Tarzon's mace smashed into Gyuap's skull after which he turned towards a scared looking Fih. "Your time has come evil creature!" shouted Tarzon as he muttered something to Helm with an eerie enthusiasm. Fih back up through the wall and disappeared from sight. "Arg! You two finish them off I'm going after the illusion!" shouted Tarzon as he rushed out the door after Fih. Thonnahar flicked through her mental spellbook looking for something to help them escape. Since she was now being left alone she jumped off the bed and grabbed Gyuap by a fistful of his clothing and then dragged Gyuap toward Tel and grabbed him. Andril and Illior turned to attack their last standing opponent and she cast a spell as quickly as she could that caused a powerful wave of invisible energy to topple Andril and Illior onto their back. Thonnahar look around frantically for Fih and Elmy, but only saw Elmy's body outside the door beyond her two angry and frustrated opponents. She had to reach him somehow. She pulled out a pouch from her belt, opened it and yelled "Bravy, help me!". Then a raven flew out of the pouch and towards Elmy. Andril and Illior didn't even notice the dark bird fly between their head and perch itself on top of Elmy's back and made a shrill bird call to tell Thonnahar it was ready. Thonnahar began a magical incantation but had to focus particularly hard as she recalled how to cast the spell without moving her arms and then suddenly Andril and Illior were gone, the room was gone and they were standing in a small clearing surrounded by dense groupings of trees, the full moon providing only minor light through the thick canopy, but it lit up dense clouds of mist around them. Thonnahar rushed to see her companions as soon as she adjusted to her new location. "Tel, Gyuap, Elmy are you okay!" she asked in a panic stricken voice. "I'm okay" replied Tel, who was holding his hand over a bleeding wound near his shoulder "My wound isn't too bad". Thonnahar looked down at Gyuap and was horrified to see his skull crushed inwards and his face covered in blood, his original wound was open again but was now bleeding much worse then before. Gyuap is dead Thonnahar concluded. Tel checked over Elmy who tried to tried to swat the raven away and sat up disoriented as if waking up from a deep sleep. Blood trickled onto his face from a wound on his head. "Where are we?" he asked. "We are in the Misty forest" Replied Thonnahar.


End file.
